Bug 4278 - Mark all as read/unread does not belong to the message context menu
Summary: Mark all as read/unread does not belong to the message context menu
Status: RESOLVED FIXED
Alias: None
Product: Claws Mail (GTK 2)
Classification: Unclassified
Component: UI/Message List (show other bugs)
Version: 3.17.3
Hardware: PC Linux
: P3 normal
Assignee: users
URL:
Depends on:
Blocks:
 
Reported: 2019-11-21 08:54 UTC by Jean Delvare
Modified: 2020-01-10 22:50 UTC (History)
0 users

See Also:


Attachments
Candidate fix for problem #1 (6.79 KB, patch)
2019-11-21 09:38 UTC, Jean Delvare
no flags Details | Diff
[PATCH 2/2] Add a Folder menu entry with Mark all read/unread (3.12 KB, patch)
2019-11-21 10:39 UTC, Jean Delvare
no flags Details | Diff
[PATCH 1/2 v2] Remove "Mark all read/unread" from the message context menu (7.41 KB, patch)
2019-11-29 08:20 UTC, Jean Delvare
no flags Details | Diff

Description Jean Delvare 2019-11-21 08:54:31 UTC
It has happened several times to me to mark ALL messages in a folder as read (or unread) when I only intended to mark ONE message as read (or unread). The options are next to each other in the message context menu (opened by right-clicking on a message) and look the same except for one more word, so it's pretty easy to be confused and click too fast.

When that happens, I just want to scream and cry, because I just lost all the information about which messages I had already read in that folder, without confirmation, and with no way to revert to the previous state. This has very bad consequences as it may cause me to completely miss messages which could be important. You can argue that I should pay more attention, but software should help us do things right, not make our daily life harder. Claws served me very well in that respect for the last 15 years and I would like to keep using it.

I believe this is a major UI design error and I would be surprised to be the only one unhappy with it. Actually there are 2 different problems:

1* Right click is supposed to open a contextual menu, so all the items in the menu should be related to the item I clicked on. If I right-click on a message, I expect only options related to that message to be presented to me. "Mark all as read/unread" is not related to the message, it is related to the folder containing the message, so that option should be presented in the context menu of the folder (where it already is). The option should NOT be presented in the context menu of messages.

There are currently 3 different places where "Mark all messages as read/unread" is presented: context menu of a folder, context menu of a message, and in Menu bar > Message. I believe only the first is legitimate, the other two should be removed. This will avoid tragic accidents and make the UI neater too. If you are worried that the feature is only available through a context menu then, thus not doable without a right-click, this can be addressed by adding a Folder entry to the Menu bar and adding the feature there.

2* Mass actions like "Mark all messages as read" should ask for confirmation. I thought that was the case but clearly it is not, as least not for me. I looked into the options to see if there was a way to change that but could not find anything. Did I miss it? It should be possible to request to be asked for confirmation for all mass actions and that should be enabled by default in my opinion. Evolution does that, for example.

Thanks.
Comment 1 Ricardo Mones 2019-11-21 09:13:38 UTC
You can enable "Confirm when marking all messages as read or unread" in Summaries page of preferences.
Comment 2 Jean Delvare 2019-11-21 09:38:12 UTC
Created attachment 2027 [details]
Candidate fix for problem #1

That's the change I would want, addressing problem #1. Implementing the confirmation dialog (problem #2) is unfortunately way beyond my GTK skills.
Comment 3 Paul 2019-11-21 09:40:51 UTC
The confirmation dialogue is already present, and enabled by default.

When it is the context menu it means it can be applied to just the selected messages.

Leaving as INVALID.
Comment 4 Jean Delvare 2019-11-21 10:32:23 UTC
Thank you very much Ricardo. I could not find it without your help, as its position within the Preferences is not exactly obvious. Or maybe I'm just not smart enough ;-) Either way this addresses problem #2, which is great.

Problem #1 remains though. I still believe the "Mark all read/unread" entries should be removed from the message menus. I have attached a candidate patch doing exactly that, please consider applying it. Again as a comparison point Evolution does not have such entries there. It does have "Folder > Mark All Messages as Read", because that's where such an action belongs.

I'll attach another patch adding the "Mark all read" and "Mark all unread" entries to a new Folder top-level menu item. Hopefully this addresses any accessibility concern.
Comment 5 Jean Delvare 2019-11-21 10:37:46 UTC
> The confirmation dialogue is already present, and enabled by default.

I'm a long-time Claws user so it is entirely possible that I disabled this years ago, although I do not remember doing it and I usually don't disable such safeties. Anyway that part of the problem is solved, thanks.

> When it is the context menu it means it can be applied to just the
> selected messages.

I don't follow you. Selecting multiple messages then doing "Right click > Mark > Mark as read/unread" will do the right thing. "Right click > Mark > Mark all as read/unread" does not depend on the message selection at all.
Comment 6 Jean Delvare 2019-11-21 10:39:47 UTC
Created attachment 2028 [details]
[PATCH 2/2] Add a Folder menu entry with Mark all read/unread

This on top of the other patch makes the UI consistent (in my opinion, at least) and in line with what other MUA like Evolution are doing.
Comment 7 Paul 2019-11-21 10:43:59 UTC
> I don't follow you. 

You're right. I wasn't really concentrating. :)
Comment 8 Jean Delvare 2019-11-29 08:20:57 UTC
Created attachment 2031 [details]
[PATCH 1/2 v2] Remove "Mark all read/unread" from the message context menu

Changes since v1:
 * Removed SET_SENSITIVE calls on the removed menu entries.
Comment 9 Jean Delvare 2020-01-10 10:03:01 UTC
Please allow me to reopen this. I think that this bug was closed because my second concern ("Mark all messages as read" not asking for confirmation) was invalid. However my first point about the UI consistency was never discussed.

I still believe that "Mark all messages as read/unread" does not belong to the Message-related context menu and should be removed from there. Would you please consider doing that (that is, applying patch 1)? The same action is already available in the Folder-related context menu (where it belongs).

Patch 2 (Adding a Folder top-level menu entry) is optional, it's not strictly needed but should be considered if you want users to be able to do the same without using the right mouse button. More actions could be added to that menu later if you think that would be convenient.

For what it's worth, both patches were accepted in the openSUSE build of claws-mail:
https://build.opensuse.org/package/show/openSUSE:Factory/claws-mail

Thanks.
Comment 10 Paul 2020-01-10 10:46:42 UTC
>  [PATCH 2/2] Add a Folder menu entry with Mark all read/unread

For me, this patch makes no more sense than what your other patch removes.

Actions relating to folders are in the folder's context menu (Mark all read/unread are already there). Your new menu entry contains just those 2 and doesn't include all the rest. Therefore it can only be rejected.

On the other hand, removing those items from the summaryview context menu does make some sense, and we have been discussing that.

Thanks all the same! We will continue to discuss the case for the removal from the summaryview context menu and come to a decision.

The fact that the patches have been accepted by OpenSUSE is just a bad decision on their part, imo.
Comment 11 Jean Delvare 2020-01-10 13:42:17 UTC
> Actions relating to folders are in the folder's context menu (Mark all
> read/unread are already there). Your new menu entry contains just those 2
> and doesn't include all the rest. Therefore it can only be rejected.

Yeah, as I was writing my comment this morning, the idea crossed my mind that if there was to be a Folder entry in the top menu then it would have to contain a lot more commands to make sense. I agree with you that the second patch can't be applied as is.

> The fact that the patches have been accepted by OpenSUSE is just a bad decision
> on their part, imo.

Probably not my best move, but I wanted my problem solved in a reasonable time frame. I'll get the second patch removed there as it's not going to make it upstream.

Thanks for your time.

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